EDIA panel

Warwick-Turing Research Software Engineering in Data & AI Workshop

Ella Kaye (chair)
Tania Allard, Mike Katell, Malvika Sharan, Marion Weinzierl, Erin Young (panellists)

February 17, 2023

Overview

  • Very short intro to EDIA (~5 mins)

  • Panel introductions (~15 mins)

  • Panel discussion (questions on slides) (~25 mins)

  • Questions from the audience (~15 mins)

Intro to EDIA

  • Equality/Equity

  • Diversity

  • Inclusion

  • Accessibility

(Part of) the problem

From What do we know about DEI in the RSE community?, a talk given by Neil Chue Hong at the Lorentz Center workshop “Vive la Differénce - RSEs”, based on the paper Understanding Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Challenges Within the Research Software Community.

Why it matters

Research software typically depends on community involvement for innovation and sustainability. Improved DEI would contribute to expanding the pool of research software contributors, with benefits including:

  • Increasing innovation: research has found that diverse teams can improve scientific outputs

  • Increasing sustainability: Community engagement is a key part of sustainability, and the open source software community faces challenges in improving DEI

  • Decreased duplication of effort and increased reuse of outputs: A stronger, more inclusive community is more likely to work together than to compete

From the report on Vive la différence - research software engineers.

Panel introductions

  • Tania Allard

  • Mike Katell

  • Malvika Sharan

  • Marion Weinzierl

  • Erin Young

Panel discussion

What have been your experiences in RSE or research as members of under-represented or over-represented communities?

What challenges have you faced when pushing for more EDIA in the RSE community? What approaches have you found most promising?

Why RSEs should be more attentive and engaged with EDIA in the RSE community

How RSEs can engage in EDIA issues in the research projects they are supporting

What does ‘epistemic justice’ mean for the RSE community and what are some paths to achieving it?

What can the RSE community learn from work in data justice?

Positive examples of groups and initiatives where EDIA was improved

Questions from the audience

Thank you